


Oh, how we can age a year in a day

by OmittedWords



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 10:35:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24848398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OmittedWords/pseuds/OmittedWords
Summary: 'They're only children, she thinks, as James and Sirius fight back-to-back.' Minerva McGonagall sees James and Sirius duelling against Death Eaters, and she thinks that things shouldn't be like this.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter
Comments: 4
Kudos: 20





	Oh, how we can age a year in a day

**Author's Note:**

> QLFC Season Eight- Round Six  
> Chaser 2: mature and childish  
> Optional prompts: 8. (word) careless, 12. (creature) butterfly, 15. (colour) tan  
> Word count: 2658
> 
> Special thanks to Rim for beta-ing this (she's an awesome beta!) and Mademoiselle for making me hyped up to work on this.

They’re only children, thinks Minerva as she takes on multiple opponents at once, her eyes constantly darting to the pair on her right. They’re only children, she thinks, as James and Sirius fight back-to-back. _They’re only children_ , she thinks, and the air constricts in her throat as a killing curse just barely misses James.

She’s barely holding off her opponents, distracted as she is now. The bright colours of the spells make a startling contrast against the darkness of the night and the dark robes of their opponents. They’re outnumbered. It’s the three of them against seven Death Eaters and Minerva’s trying her best to take on most of them on her own.

How had they even heard of the Order’s plans to relocate the Winslets?

They had arrived at an empty house and found a group of Death Eaters lying in wait for them.

James and Sirius shouldn’t be here. They shouldn’t be in a fight for their lives when they’re barely out of Hogwarts. They’re barely eighteen, she thinks, as a bone crushing curse hits Sirius’ leg and he retaliates even as he falls down. He retaliates with a curse that makes his opponent’s scream pierce the air and Minerva’s hand tightens around her wand.

She has to focus.

They have to make it out alive.

She switches to more volatile spells—their lives are on the line and she can’t let two teenagers get hurt because she had been too worried to escalate the battle. _She cannot let two of her children die._ James is following her lead; his spells becoming significantly more dangerous.

Flicking her wand, she sees an opening and takes down one of her opponents, finally giving her the chance to go on the offensive. The rest of them are dealt with quickly and she turns to see James muttering an incantation and a vivid purple spell shooting out of his wand at the only remaining opponent.

“Butterflies,” she whispers, surprised.

xxx

_“Evans! Evans!”_

_“Go away, Potter!”_

_“You’re going to want to see this.”_

_“What?” snapped Lily as she turned around, irritation visible on her face. The rest of the students in the corridor were loitering to watch the scene unfold though they tried to look as if they were not. “I’ll be late for Charms, and some of us, Potter, care about their OWLs.”_

_Minerva was just about to intervene and break off whatever theatrics he was about to engage in when he grinned and carelessly waved his wand around in what seemed to be nonsensical patterns and swirls. She came to the conclusion that he was merely waving his wand around with no spell in mind. “Mr Potter, would you please-”_

_There was a bright purple light visible from the end of his wand and the seemingly nonsensical swirls he’d drawn were starting to glow a bright purple as well. No, not nonsensical patterns, she realises as she places the swirls. Butterflies._

_There were dozens of little purple butterflies flying around the corridor amidst sounds of awing and cooing. Even Miss Evans was wide eyed at the display._

_“Evans,” said Mr Potter, right in the midst of all the fluttering butterflies. “Will you go on a date with me?”_

_For a moment she looked like a deer caught in headlights. Only a moment._

_“For the last time, Potter, I will not! Leave me be.” She shot him a withering look and stalked out of the corridor._

_Minerva felt sorry for the boy. He must have put a lot of effort into the display of butterflies, even though it was unnecessarily over the top and dramatic._

_Later in her next class, every single student found themselves inexplicably glued to their chair and although the culprit wasn’t known, she’d have bet anything that James Potter had had a hand in it. Along with his three friends. The butterflies were clearly a distraction ploy aimed at her._

_She snorted. Really, she should’ve known._

xxx

Of course, the vivid purple spell that shoots out of James’ wand is _not_ the charm that made butterflies fly around. This spell hits his opponent squarely on the chest and makes him fall to his knees. Minerva feels her heart sinking.

“Professor!” James is on his knees beside Sirius, and she hurries over. Sirius is unmoving on the ground, eyes closed, his right leg bent hazardously and his skin unnaturally pale. A thousand thoughts run through her mind at once and she struggles to maintain herself.

“I’ll apparate him to Headquarters,” she says finally, her voice hoarse. “He needs medical assistance immediately.” Every other word she’d wanted to utter can wait for now.

James gives her a determined nod and she casts a mild stabilising charm on Sirius before she apparates with him. James follows mere seconds later.

At the headquarters they’re greeted by a frazzled and tired group who start at the sight of Sirius. Poppy rushes around casting spells, but they’re woefully low on potions and he’d have to endure the pain for the most part.

Minerva retreats to an armchair by the fireplace, a cup of tea in hand and waiting for Sirius to wake up. James takes the seat across her, his shoulders stooped and eyes downcast. His jaw is set, and he looks years older. It shouldn’t be like this, she thinks. He should be playing childish pranks with his friends like he once used to do. Making stupid mistakes like teenagers ought to do. Instead, one of his friends has been sent to live with werewolves as a spy, all contact cut off. The other has been on a mission for months, and Lily lives in constant fear because she’s twice a target as a muggleborn witch in the Order. Now Sirius is in the next room, injured and with no guarantee of his survival.

He shouldn’t be fearing for his best friend’s life. No, not his best friend. _Brother_. The others are his best friends, but Sirius was his brother.

She wants to say something, she really does, but the words die each time she opens her mouth.

“Sirius is awake now. He’s going to be alright,” says Poppy as she enters the sitting room. Relief washes over James’ face and he stands up from his armchair noticeably straighter and walks out of the room with Poppy. She reckons she should give them a couple of moments before she goes to check on Sirius. She doesn’t want to stick around at headquarters any longer, but she wants to see for herself that he's better.

There comes the loud laughter of Sirius from the other room, followed by James’ and she smiles. If she closes her eyes, she can imagine it’s a couple of years ago and that they’re laughing over another of their well-executed pranks.

xxx

_“It should be much easier teaching this week since the students’ Hogsmeade visit is over with. I swear, no one was paying attention to anything I taught last week. And it only got worse as the week progressed!”_

_“They’re probably going to be in even higher spirits now. We’re going to have to tell them to stop talking every five minutes.”_

_Pomona laughed. “I doubt anyone would be foolish enough to talk in your class, Minerva,” she said, setting her drink down with a clang._

_The great hall was buzzing with conversation that grew louder as the owls came swooping in with mail. Minerva herself was impatient for the Daily Prophet. But the package that landed in front of her was not the Daily Prophet. In fact, it was-_

_“Flowers, Minerva? Really?” came the coy voice of Pomona from her right. “Who’s the lucky person?”_

_“I have no idea.” She narrowed her eyes at the flowers but before she could say anymore, another owl dropped a bouquet in front of her. As well as another. Soon there were at least ten bouquets of varying sizes in front of her and the students were all whispering amongst themselves. Pomona was in fits of laughter at that point and Albus was smiling widely and she scowled at them both._

_Another owl came, this time dropping a… howler? She took her wand out to vanish it when Albus discreetly whispered, “I’d advise you to open this one.”_

_She turned to him in confusion but apparently, she’d waited far too long already for the letter burst into flames. Then came the message from the howler, magnified ten times and echoing through the great hall._

_“FLOWERS FOR OUR BELOVED TEACHER TO COMMEMORATE 15 YEARS OF TEACHING!” This was followed by another voice, “WE LOVE YOU MINNIE!”, and a couple of muffled giggles. Then the howler tore itself to shreds._

_After a beat of complete silence, the students burst into giggles. The staff was doing a horrible job at feigning indifference; they all looked highly amused. While the voices had been disguised or rather, attempted to be disguised, she recognised them to be one James Potter and Sirius Black. No doubt the other two had helped._

_And they’d clearly had assistance._

_“Albus, you helped them do this, didn’t you?”_

_“Who?” He asked, feigning confusion._

_“James Potter and Sirius Black! I heard Lupin and Pettigrew laughing in the background as well.”_

_“Alas, we shall never know for sure who did this,” replied Albus smiling broadly. “It’s only a bit of fun, Minerva.”_

_She pursed her lips and pointed her wand at the flowers, intending to vanish them. However, she changed her mind and spelled them to her chambers instead._

_It was a nice gesture._

_She’d have some words for Albus later though._

xxx

The memory makes her smile. How long ago it seems.

Setting the cup of tea down, she rises from the armchair and goes to the other room, pausing only to knock.

“Oh Professor,” says James, turning from where he was seated beside Sirius, who was looking significantly less pale. “We’d like to hear your thoughts on this.”

They’re huddling over a piece of parchment and it’s a sight she’s seen many times at Hogwarts before. It usually warned her to be on the lookout for pranks. Two of the four were missing now though.

“It’s a plan in case of another ambush like that.”

And just like that, Minerva finds the warmth the memory brought her evaporate at Sirius’ words.

“Professor? What’s the matter? Did you come in for something?”

“No, no. It’s alright. I just came to see how you were doing, Sirius.”

“Good as new, Minnie!”

She would’ve shot him a stern look at any other time and reprimanded him, but currently she’s _exhausted_.

Clearing her throat and steeling herself, she says, “let me see the plan.”

It is a good plan, she thinks as she looks over it. In fact, it’s a great plan, but her fingers feel numb, the parchment is unnaturally heavy in her hands, and she can’t stop thinking about how teenagers shouldn’t be making _battle plans_ of all things. 

They deserve a better life.

“It’s a good plan,” she says once she has looked over it. “Memorise it and then burn it. We don’t want it getting into the wrong hands.”

They deserve a better future.

xxx

_“Lily, I’ve been meaning to ask you something.”_

_“Oh?”_

_The voices made Minerva pause her brisk walking, and she could just see James around the corner, leaning against the wall with his wand dangling from his fingers._

_“Well, I know that this has been a hard year. It’s been a frightening year to be honest, what with all these attacks and everything.”_

_Minerva felt her chest contract at his statement. It shouldn’t be something that two students should be concerning themselves with. However, at that point, it wasn’t something that they could escape either._

_“I saw you comforting that first-year student the other day,” said Lily and her voice carried over easily through the otherwise empty corridor._

_“He was crying because he’d been told that Hogwarts was no place for the likes of him. Someone called him a you-know-what. They’re prejudices that no eleven-year old should be facing. So, I set him to rights and told him that all that was stupid, and he shouldn’t be believing a word of it.”_

_“That was nice of you.”_

_James gave a careless sort of shrug. “It’s what a Head boy should do, right? Besides, I can’t fathom how anyone can believe a word of that pureblood nonsense.”_

_There was a beat of silence and James coughed. “The future is uncertain, and we have no idea what the heck it’s going to be like. I know you’re preparing for the worst too.”_

_“It’d be foolish not to. What with me being muggleborn and all. Besides, we all know that this is pointing towards war.”_

_“But we can’t let them bring our spirits down. We can create happiness and hope and we’re going to make a brighter future.”_

_“What’s with the speech, Potter?”_

_“Uh. I guess I’m trying to ask if you’ll go to Hogsmeade with me next weekend.”_

_“A date?”_

_“Yes, a date. What else?”_

_“I don’t know! You were making an awfully long speech.”_

_“I was rambling! I think I forgot where I was going with it at one point. Anyway, Lily Evans, will you go on a date with me?”_

_“Of course, I will.”_

_Minerva found the corners of her lips twitching at how James was beaming. She also thought it amusing at how he’d finally seemed to grow up enough to ask Lily out on a proper date. Without any flashes, bangs, or dramatic displays._

_“Oh, that reminds me. A gift for you.” James waved his wand as he said that, and Minerva recognised the spell an instant before the butterfly had taken form. It was a lone butterfly, tan instead of purple but much more realistic than before._

_“For old times’ sake,” he said, smiling. “I thought tan would go better with your hair. And,” he broke off, seemingly embarrassed._

_“And?”_

_“It means warmth. As well as security, like protection or sanctuary. You bring me warmth, and I’d like whatever we have to feel like a sanctuary.”_

_It also signified dependability and reliability and she knew that James Potter had grown to embody those two characteristics well. She schooled her face into an impassive look before carrying on with her patrol, taking care to clear her throat before rounding the corner._

_“Miss Evans. Mister Potter,” she greeted with a nod and walked away, pretending not to notice how they’d jumped and how Lily had blushed red._

_The tan did go well with her hair._

xxx

This time she cannot afford to be careless.

Nor can she afford to be distracted.

She starts off with lethal spells right off the bat, even as the old fears play out in her head, over and over. _It could be a student. A person who she helped shape since they were eleven._

_It could be someone whom she’d failed as a teacher._

She has to fight to defend the ones who are duelling by her side. She has to give them a chance at a better future, a chance for them to chase their dreams. She has to protect them, she thinks, as her opponents drop. One after the other.

It’s another battle where she’s joined by James and Sirius, but there are more from the Order this time. They’re more evenly matched and the battle is over without any casualties or fatal injuries on their side. There are no loud whoops or celebrations when they win. Just a heavy sigh of relief that they’re safe.

James and Sirius are no longer children. They grow older with each battle they fight, each injury they receive, and each ally that falls. They’ve matured now, she thinks as they give excellent suggestions during Order meetings. They’re warriors, she thinks when she sees them fight.

They’ve grown up, she thinks. But oh, they shouldn’t have had to grow up like this.


End file.
